The University of Maryland School of Medicine announced the launch of a new training program to address the urgent physician shortages on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The University of Maryland School of Medicine announced on Wednesday that they are launching a new training program in ‘Rural Health’ for medical students.

Starting this weekend, Montgomery County residents can drop off decomposing jack-o-lanterns and other food scraps in bins at three local farmers markets thanks to a new composting program offered by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

An attorney for voters trying to block a Baltimore referendum on redevelopment of the Inner Harbor faced stiff questioning Wednesday from several Maryland Supreme Court justices, who are trying to determine if the issue should go forward. But the justices did not rule after the hourlong hearing, which came less than four weeks before Election Day and as thousands of mailed-out ballots with the question on them have already been returned by city voters.

Proposed legislation born out of Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater’s data center workgroup could change the approval process for new data center projects. It also could require developers of lots previously approved for critical digital infrastructure (CDI) use to seek a new zoning designation before expanding.

Whatever destruction Hurricane Milton brings, there will be big decisions ahead about how to rebuild and even what places might need to be abandoned. Some damage predictions already exceed $200 billion in combined losses for Milton and Hurricane Helene, which crashed into the Southeast 13 days ago. Officials in Ellicott City are offering words of encouragement to battered communities in Florida and North Carolina as they hold their historic Maryland community as an example of the recovery that’s possible in the future.

Renew Baltimore, the organization behind a widely discussed ballot initiative aimed at significantly reducing the city’s property tax rate, has submitted over 23,000 signatures — more than double the amount required to place the measure on the ballot. However, the Maryland Supreme Court recently blocked the proposed charter amendment from appearing on Baltimore City’s 2024 Election Day ballot.

Marriott International has agreed to pay $52 million and make changes to bolster its data security to resolve state and federal claims related to major data breaches that affected more than 300 million of its customers worldwide. The Federal Trade Commission and a group of attorneys general from 49 states and the District of Columbia announced the terms of separate settlements with Marriott on Wednesday.

A bar serving a drink that claims to be a healthier alternative to alcohol is getting ready to launch in Mt. Vernon. Root City Kava Bar & Lounge plans to bring kava, a drink popular in Pacific islands like Samoa, to Baltimore. Indigenous people have long consumed the plant by grinding the roots into a pulp and steeping it in water, similar to tea.

Affordable housing, small business revitalization and food insecurity took center stage in Carroll County this week, with a two-day visit from Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day. Day continued his initiative to tour counties across the state with stops in Carroll County on Tuesday and Wednesday. Day, along with his senior staff, spent Tuesday touring the City of Westminster, and Wednesday visiting Taneytown and other parts of the county.

Howard Stern does not know it, but we have had a one-sided beef since 1997. This dates back to his obnoxiously crude days, when I covered a remote news conference announcing his then-terrestrial radio show’s debut on a local York, Pennsylvania, station. Stern, talking to us via satellite from New York, discovered I was a young Black woman and demanded that the men in the room determine if I was hot (they said I was), asked me graphic questions about whether Black or white men were better lovers, and then queried the next female reporter at the microphone if she would make out with me.